1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a digital mixer which processes audio signals and, more specifically, to a digital mixer which has characteristics in operability.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital mixer which processes audio signals generally has many input channels and output channels. For each of them, many parameters of a limiter, compressor, equalizer, fader, pan, patch status, ON, and the like can be set, and conversely, it is necessary to set these many parameters in order to make the digital mixer perform action as desired.
As a control panel for performing such settings, for example, one shown in FIG. 12 has been used. This control panel 200 and setting processing of parameters using such a control panel 200 will be described here.
This control panel 200 includes a display 10 and is for instructing a change of parameters so as to edit the parameters by controlling various controls while referring to a view displayed on the display 10.
Therefore, as the controls, there provided are view selection switches 20, tab selection switches 30, cursor controls 40, increase/decrease controls 50, and an enter switch 60.
Views to be displayed on the display 10 include an input channel setting view for editing some parameters of one selected input channel, an output channel setting view for editing some parameters of one selected output channel, a parameter setting view for performing an edit of one parameter for a plurality of input channels at once, a setting view of input patch and output patch, and so on. The view selection switches 20 are switches for selecting these views. Besides, change of the kind of parameters to be displayed on the input channel setting view, or the like, is made by the tab selection switches 30.
Besides, the cursor controls 40 are controls for operating a cursor displayed in the above-described views. Further, the increase/decrease controls 50 are controls for increasing and decreasing the parameter displayed at the position of the cursor in the views. The increase/decrease controls 50 are composed of a rotary encoder 51 and an increase switch 52 and decrease switch 53, either of which can be used to instruct to increase and decrease. Then, by pressing the enter switch 60 after the increase/decrease setting, the value after the change can be enabled. However, as for continuously changeable parameters, the value after a change is enabled every time increase/decrease instruction is made.
The edit of parameters can be performed by selecting parameters desired to be changed one by one by each of these controls and instructing to make a change.
Further, in addition to the above, channel controls 70 composed of n pieces (n is arbitrary) of channel strips 71 to 7n are provided as controls for setting individual parameters. With each of the channel strips 71 to 7n, one input channel or output channel can be associated, so that they function as controls for setting parameters for the respective channels.
The channel strips 71 to 7n include moving faders 71a to 7na for performing setting of the output level, ON switches 71b to 7nb for performing setting of ON/OFF, and selection switches 71c to 7nc having a later-described function (hereinafter, reference numbers 70a, 70b, and 70c will be used when showing the kind of switches, respectively), so that these controls can be used to directly set parameters associated therewith. If there is no problem in terms of cost or space, controls and rotary encoders associated with other parameters may be further provided.
Besides, the control panel 200 includes a selected channel control switch group 80. The selected channel control switch group 80 is composed of rotary encoders and switches associated with several parameters. By pressing a certain selection switch 7ic among the above-described channel controls 70, a channel associated with a channel strip 7i including the selection switch can be assigned to the selected channel control switch group 80, whereby the rotary encoders and switches constituting the selected channel control switch group 80 can be used as controls for setting associated parameters for the channel.
The control panel 200 provided with the above-described controls can be used to set many parameters necessary to make the digital mixer operate. In particular, when the controls in the selected channel control switch group 80 are used, parameters desired to be set can be changed without moving the cursor, leading to high operability.
We have before filed a patent on a technique relating to such a control panel 200 (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0059066, unpublished on the priority date of this application).
Besides, JP, 2002-142286, A is known as a technical document in the related field.
However, since provision of the switches of the selected channel control switch group 80 in the above-described control panel 200 leads to an increase in cost, a sufficient number of switches cannot be provided in a less expensive lower grade model, or no switches can be provided at all in some cases. Further, also in an expensive higher grade model, it is difficult to provide switches for all of the parameters.
Accordingly, for a parameter that has no associated switch in the selected channel control switch group 80, it has been required to operate the view setting controls such as the view selection switches 20, tab selection switches 30, and cursor controls 40 to display the setting view of the parameter on the display 10, adjust the cursor to the parameter, and then change the value thereof. Therefore, there has been a problem that many operations are required to change the value, resulting in poor operability.